Our craziness...

Why does it seem so hard to be good at keeping up my own blog, but I have no reserves of spending hours looking at everyone else's?

Well, here's the Bess household update. (This is another reason why I don't like posting, is because when I FINALLY get around to doing so, I have a lot to catch up on.)

So, on that note!

Taylor- he's back in school and is in the 5th grade. It's hard to believe he'll turn 11 in November. I remember so many things with him as a baby, like it was yesterday. He's such a smart kid, I really am proud of him. The first day of school, I have no pictures of him. I asked him if he wanted me to walk him into his class and he gave me this ridiculous look and said "Nooo!" and kind of laughs at me. I'm afraid, gone are the days of him needing me like I want him to. However, independence is a good place to be. :) He was just chosen to be on the Student Council, so he's pretty excited about that. I really hope to find positive influences for my kids, most especially as they get older. It's a scary world out there.

We've started on the road with him and orthodontics. He got a space maintainer put in several months ago, and will end up needing at least a few braces on bottom. Time will tell exactly what will become of all of that.

As you'll notice, I don't have much in the way of pictures of him. I need to try harder with that, but he does his own thing so much of the time that he's never around upstairs. He's very content to be by himself downstairs in his 'apartment' (we joke and call it that because if there was food down there, he wouldn't need to come upstairs), playing his various video games, reading, or something to that nature. But I do love him very much and he is a great helper to me and especially with Kambri.

Doing what he loves...

(Crappy picture quality of a cell phone anyways. We're getting ready to buy a new digital camera, that'll be nice!)

Hollie just started 1st grade and has proven to be a bit of an emotional thing for her. We've had a few difficult mornings with her being absolutely hysterical and crying about going to school. I'm not sure what the cause is. Best we can tell, she's just adjusting to full day school and misses mom. (That does make me feel good, I confess.)

1st day of First Grade (at least she needed me, and I did get to walk her into her class)

She is learning to read and that is so exciting to see how that comes together. Bless those teachers that teach our children because #1, I don't have the patience, and #2, it's amazing the strategies they use.

She's starting to seem more grown up and is slowly moving out of her constant 'fit' stage that we've been playing in for the last 4 years. She loves to sing as you'll notice in her concert performance...aka her bedroom, as well as her creative side of self-decorating her room!

Watch out Hannah Montana, here's your biggest competition!

Kambri will be turning 2 next month and it makes me very sad. I've been holding on to every stage as she's been going through it, knowing that she's our last.

We have her in speech therapy, as she's not really talking much. She does say a lot of names of family members, and a few odd and end things, but nothing definitive that helps us in communicating with each other. Consequently, it makes for a lot of frustration on her end and ours. I just keep praying that it will come soon for her.

We have put her on the potty a few times just more for the practice, and we have been successful quite a few times. When I can have 5 minutes for life to slow down and not have to be running some where during the day, we're really going to try tackling the potty training thing. How nice it will be when I buy my last package of diapers EVER!

Such a proud girl! First time on the toilet was a success.

She is a lot of fun and I am really enjoying my 1-on-1 time with her when kids are in school. She was very distraught when they first started back and would walk through the house calling their names and looking at me questioningly, but she's getting in the swing of it all better.

Jamming out like her big sister!

As for Shaun and I, we're keeping busy with normal day things. Shaun has been working a lot of extra hours lately at work, so it seems there just aren't enough hours in a day to get done what we need to at home, but such is life! :) Hunting season is here, therefore, very shortly I will be a Deer Widow, a Goose Widow, and everything else imaginable. Haha! He enjoys it though, and that's what matters.

I've been released from my Primary calling so that I can work on getting Kambri transitioned into the nursery. She screams bloody murder when I leave her there and it's been awful. Hopefully it will be a quick transitioning period so I can get comfy again back in Relief Society. I will be setting a date within the next few weeks to go through and take out my endowments in the Logan Temple. I'm very excited for this, as it's been a long time coming. I pray that Shaun will follow suit and that our family will be sealed shortly.

Okay! Quite lengthy, but it's been a while. I would say that I'm going to be better, but I don't want to set the standard too high for my ambitions! LOL! I truly would like to do better, as I thoroughly enjoy reading blogs and keeping up to date with everyone else. It would be nice to be able to reciprocate though and leave something for others to read!

With that, have a wonderful week!